Ballots for the Tahoma School District Educational Programs & Operations Levy are nearly due!
Submit your YES! ballots into the mail or a King County Elections Dropbox before 8:00 PM on Tuesday, 4/23/24.
How does overcrowding impact our senior high?
Here’s what parents, teachers and students are saying about the aging, dilapidated portables at the high school and other issues:
Joanne Kunze: “They look even worse up close, and smell horrible. It’s like living in a smelly cardboard box.”
Teresa Sweet: “My daughter has told me her math portable was inhabited by squirrels, and when it’s warm out they are infested with ladybugs.”
Danielle Kennaday: “My son told me his math portable had chipmunks in it when the teacher first opened it. … We have kids working their behinds off in classes like Advanced Placement Calculus in nasty old portables infested with rodents!”
Joseph Myers: The real shame is that they can’t fit every student into Mr. Wright’s portable! (See photo, left.) I learned so much in there over the last two years. But yeah, it was extremely cramped. You were mistaken if you sat in the back row and assumed you could get up to the front without needing to climb over a person, backpack, or desk.
Rachel Mahnke: Speaking from the experience of sitting in that same class room, [Mr. Wright’s] is one of the nicest portables in the school. Many are much worse.
Tina Brown Snyder, parent: “My oldest daughter was in the fall production three years ago. During this live performance held at the high school, rain was dripping onto the stage in not just one place but two. These students performed a wonderful show despite the constant drip from the leaking roof.”
Jennifer McCoy, fine arts and digital graphics teacher: “I have 36 kids in each of my classes this year and I am the lucky one. (Another teacher) has 37. There is just simply NO MORE ROOM! The threat of split-shifting school is REAL! It WILL happen if people do not vote YES! Other teachers who have smaller rooms than I have are at the same size class.”